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Republic of Erewhon
The Republic of Erewhon was a single-system star nation with the planet Erewhon as its capital. It was allied with the Solarian League and, like Manticore, in possession of a wormhole junction, the Erewhon Wormhole Junction. Its terminus in the Terra Haute System was 25 light-years away from the Hennesy Terminus of the Manticore Wormhole Junction. Star Geography The People's Republic of Haven was located to the galactic north, the Star Kingdom of Manticore to the west, and the Phoenix Cluster to the south-east. ( ) History Erewhon was originally settled by a group of successful interstellar criminals. Initially, the planet and its enterprises were used as a front for organized crime. At the time, a successful criminal was an honorable criminal, leading to the development of an honor code that existed into the modern era. Coupled with the growth of the planetary population, support industries, and increased legitimate commerce, the government evolved into a legitimate body. ( ) Alliances Member of the Manticoran Alliance During the First Havenite-Manticoran War, Erewhon was a member of the Manticoran Alliance. While the Cromarty government had good relations with Erewhon, the High Ridge government strained relations to the point where Erewhon withdrew from the Alliance at the end of open hostilities. (HH10) Erewhon's defection to the Havenites was nothing short of a disaster for the Star Kingdom, since the Erewhon Navy was the third largest of the Alliance, and had received substantial technology transfers from Manticore. ( ) Treaty with Republic of Haven Prior to the outbreak of the Second Havenite-Manticoran War, and concerned about the perfidy of Manticore under the High Ridge government, Erewhon signed a mutual defense treaty with the Republic of Haven, which provided only for mutual defense, not a complete alignment of foreign policies. Careful not to strain relations, Republican President Pritchart publicly declared that, since Haven had initiated open hostilities with the Star Kingdom of Manticore, they would not expect Erewhon to do the same. ( ) Relations with Solarian League The Republic of Erewhon was once mentioned to be a member of the Solarian League. ( ) This was later corrected, as Erewhon just had a military treaty with the League.There were no known precedents of secession from the Solarian League. The Solarian League had long courted Erewhon in an attempt to bring it (and its Junction) into the League. Government Erewhon's central government was considerably less formal than that of most other nations. While there were indeed central agencies that handled services and duties (such as the Navy), policies were determined in ways that reflected Erewhon's origins. There was a small number of powerful ruling families, though only a subset of them could be considered in power at any one time. Power struggles were relatively frequent, though not violent, with deals often made in the equivalent of smoke-filled back rooms. While formally a republic, Erewhon was in fact controlled by a group of powerful families which made all the decisions, using the official Erewhonese government as a façade. The formal head of state of the Republic of Erewhon was the President, who was usually the head of one of the families currently at the top of the Erewhonese power structure. Real executive power in Erewhon was in the hands of a triumvirate or quadrumvirate of family heads. ( ) Military Though Erewhon was capable of producing small warships (such as destroyers), its Navy wasn't large enough to support the capacity for larger warships. Instead, it relied largely on Solarian League corporations such as Technodyne Industries of Yildun. While it was a member of the Manticoran Alliance, Erewhon relied upon other members for technology and refits, as well as the Royal Manitcoran Navy for general defense. Its interests in becoming independent of such sources led to an arrangement with the Maya Sector to build larger ships, which justified developing its own capacity for building larger warships. * Erewhon Navy * Erewhon Army - Its advisors supported the Canmore Republic, located on the planet Silvestria. ( ) Law Erewhon was known to have some of the strictest traffic laws and sanitation codes in the known universe. The Death penalty was outlawed on Erewhon; life without parole was used in its stead. For particularly harsh sentences, solitary confinement was used as well, in small cells with no windows and very little exercise; sentences sometimes included sensory deprivation. ( ) Society and Culture Erewhon was particularly known for its complex honor code. At its heart was the inviolability of one's word. As a result, Erewhon had one of the lowest percentages of lawyers in the industrialized galaxy. Erewhon traders and businesses were especially known for being shrewd negotiators. Erewhon had a reputation of being a seedy and dangerous place to be, with an especially active criminal underworld. However, the Erewhonese were honorable people, operating on a developed version of the thieves' code of honor. ( ) Economy Erewhon's prosperity had been boosted by the existence of the Erewhon Wormhole Junction, which attracted trade from and to the Solarian League. Even though the Erewhon Junction was small compared to the Manticore Junction, the Erewhonese had become commercially important beyond the level its size and population alone would have supported. Notable tourist attractions on Erewhon were the city of Maytag itself, the Suds Emporium (a privately owned structure which housed many government offices and was regarded as the actual seat of government on Erewhon), and the space station known as The Wages of Sin. ( ) Geography The Republic's capital was the city of Maytag. Erewhonese place names tended to reference ancient Earth laundry products (Maytag, Sears, Suds Emporium, Whirlpool Gulf) and were reflective of the intent of the planet's founding families (which were criminal organizations) to use it as a money laundering and "washing" enterprise. ( ) References External links * David Weber's comment concerning Erewhon's League Membership in the infodump * [http://www.davidmattingly.com/Pages/Animatns.html Wages of Sin screensaver by David Mattingly] Category:Star nations Category:Erewhon